The Supreme Court has denied a petition from Domino’s
Pizza Inc. following a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that
ruled in favor of a blind man named Guillermo Robles who sued the chain when he
was unable to order pizza off the Domino’s website or mobile app even with screen
reading technology. The Supreme Court decision will leave the original ruling
in place, which maintained that the company must make its website and mobile
app accessible under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

The case was originally filed in September 2016 in the
Central District of California as Robles v. Domino’s Pizza LLC. After a March
2017 decision by a district judge initially dismissed the lawsuit stating that
it “would violate Domino’s due process rights” because the Department of Justice
had “failed to provide helpful guidance,” the lawsuit went to the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals.

In a January 2019 decision, the Court of Appeals reversed
the initial ruling in a unanimous decision, stating that, although ADA
compliance generally applies to “places of public accommodation,” the act never
actually states that that ADA compliance must occur “in a place of public
accommodation.”

“The panel stated that the website and app connected
customers to the goods and services of Domino’s physical restaurants,” the
Ninth Circuit decision stated. “To limit the ADA to discrimination in the
provision of services occurring on the premises of a public accommodation would
contradict the plain language of the statute.”

The Court of Appeals also ruled that the compliance
mandate did not violate the company’s Fourteenth Amendment rights to due
process because the company had been given adequate time to comply and that
“the ADA articulates comprehensible standards” to which companies have to
conform in order to be in compliance with federal law. The court also ruled
that “lack of specific regulations” as outlined in the ADA does not exempt
Domino’s from following the law.

Following the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling,
Domino’s pled their case with the Supreme Court. By denying their petition on
Monday, the Supreme Court upholds the Court of Appeals decision.

In 2018, over 2,200 lawsuits have been filed over website
accessibility, a 181% increase...